AHIMA: Information Governance Failing

By Christine Kern, contributing writer

AHIMA notes the healthcare industry is lagging behind other industry with regards to information governance programs.

A panel of health information management experts from AHIMA, speaking on data governance at the CMS eHealth Summit, warned that information governance programs which encompass the lifecycle of electronic health records systems and other data – from collection to disposal – were "less prevalent and mature in healthcare" than is warranted, given the importance of the information, according to Fierce EMR.

The first benchmark survey on information governance in healthcare, conducted by AHIMA in partnership with Cohasset Associates, will be released in a white paper later this month. Deborah Green, AHIMA's CEO, explained, "We tapped into databases of provider organizations. We also reached out to organizations like HIEs, ACOs, and payers. We went after individuals who were in the C-Suite."

Acute care settings represented the majority of survey respondents and a clear 35 percent of the 1,000 respondents didn't know if their healthcare organization had any information governance efforts underway or did not recognize a need for it.

Health Data Management reports only 11 percent of respondents characterized their information governance as "mature" programs. Also, a mere 17 percent of healthcare organizations had mature policy and procedure practices in place. In addition, 35 percent of survey respondents either didn't know whether their healthcare organizations had information governance efforts underway or indicated that their organization did not recognize the need for information governance, while 22 percent acknowledged the need but didn't yet initiate a program.

Meryl Bloomrosen, AHIMA's vice president for public policy, claimed it is the first-ever nationwide information governance survey for the healthcare industry. AHIMA partnered on the survey with Cohasset Associates, a Chicago-based consulting firm specializing in records management and information governance.

"In healthcare for a while now we've been focusing on health data mostly, and what we're trying to share with you is our perspective on how information governance is really the umbrella over all information within the healthcare organization, not just the data that are captured in the electronic or paper record," Bloomrosen said. "If you think through the types of information that are collected – personnel files, HR files, health record files, purchasing data, employment data, suppliers, providers, financing – all of this needs to be governed."

AHIMA is launching several initiatives to help healthcare organizations better govern their information, such as the creation of information governance principles, the development of a self-assessment tool, and resources to operationalize information governance, such as webinars, case studies, policies and procedures, said Meryl Bloomrosen, AHIMA's vice president of public policy.

A recent study by HIMSS Analytics found that only 60 percent of healthcare organizations have formalized electronic health record governance structures in place, with 63 percent of those structures involving a cross-functional, multi-disciplinary advisory board or committee. Physician/clinician engagement and adoption were seen by respondents as the most significant EHR governance challenges.